I’m told “mammoni” translates to “mama’s boy” by the internet.
Picking up from last week, Pesci is reeling in Guido Mista, with Beach Boy’s hook sinking further and further into his body and going up to his brain. He summons Sex Pistols to sever the line, but this ultimately fails, forcing him to send Pistols to hunt for their foe. They find the train car he’s in and aim directly at his ice glass, breaking it into pieces which causes him to panic and drop the rod. Pesci finds himself unable to escape as an aged man grabs onto him begging for help before one of Pesci’s fingers gets shot off. Mista then enters and demands to know the whereabouts of his partner, but then the old man grabs onto him and continues begging for help as Mista suddenly ages rapidly. The old man then reveals himself to be Prosciutto, having aged himself to hide in plain sight, as Mista drops to the ground exhausted. Prosciutto de-ages himself back to normal and then shoots him directly in the head while assaulting Pesci for being weak-minded and easily flustered.
The two head back to the conductor’s train car as they search for the rest of the crew. Pesci remembered his intent to search underneath the seats, and while he fails to notice anything at first, Prosciutto finds his instincts to be spot-on. A dried-up piece of animal shit under the seat leads him to uncover where the turtle is hiding and exposing the gang, but Pesci senses that Bucciarati is missing. As Prosciutto prepares to attack, Bucciarati emerges from the ceiling, aided by one of the Sex Pistols, revealing that Mista is still just barely alive enough to help. The two proceed to exchange blows back and forth, with Bucciarati narrowly avoiding a potentially devastating attack, but then Prosciutto taunts him with an unfortunate fact: the fight has caused his body temperature to increase significantly, aging him past the point where any ice would help. However, our hero had a counter for this as, in an act of desperation, Bucciarati opens up a massive zipper in the side of the train car and proceeds to jump out of the moving train, dragging Prosciutto out with him.
There’s an oddly beautiful rhythm to the myriad of ways JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure escalates a fight. Every punch, every yell, every surprise reversal and twist has this great flow of action that always keeps the tension up. In particular, having to deal with the dueling natures of Pesci and Prosciutto as our heroes slowly get drawn out into battle one by one is something to behold. The dynamic of our two villains expands itself further and becomes the focal point of the episode’s various action beats. As previously stated, their relationship bears a lot of similarities to the Nijimura brothers from part 4, but it’s given a somewhat unique angle by having Prosciutto be a little bit more openly concerned about Pesci. It’s evident primarily in the body language between the two, as there’s a handful of moments where Prosciutto, when he’s not kicking the shit out of Pesci, is gently rubbing his hands around his head trying to calm him down and get his head in the game. It’s highly paternalistic in a sense, even using the aforementioned term “mammoni” quite a bit, like a father trying to soothe an easily flustered child.
in you.
The constant presence of Grateful Dead’s aging miasma is the permanent factor from scene to scene, establishing its powers as the toughest obstacle to deal with. The threat and capabilities are explored in multiple aspects, from Prosciutto’s disguise to the presence of ice in every scene. It’s a massive hurdle to deal with, especially considering Mista’s near-death is only barely avoided because of a hidden ice cube (and the help of Sex Pistols, of course).
The production, as always, keeps the tension at its most nerve-wracking. The visualizations of the aged passengers sells the fear of their newfound weakness, only for that to be reversed when the elderly Prosciutto makes himself known and the visuals sell a more terrifying image. The shot composition during Mista’s incapacitation pulls in deliberately close to share the horror of what has happened to him, aided by this fading wisp in the air around him and the building pool of blood. During the battle in the conductor’s train car, the sound design goes particularly wild and over the top, as the audio fills up with clanking busted steel, bursts of wind from the rapid punches, and even the loud lion roars from Grateful Dead for that finishing touch of lethality. There’s even a bit of cheeky playfulness as Sticky Fingers’ abilities generate video game sound effects that deliberately evoke the ‘80s arcade era, like Pac-Man for example. The episode leaves off on a particularly nail-biting cliffhanger, and I’m looking forward to where it goes next week.
New episodes of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind premiere every Friday and can be streamed exclusively on Crunchyroll.